Booking Through Thursday: What Makes a Good Book

 

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Everybody needs a change now and again, so what new topics or authors are you interested in these days? Or what new kinds of books do you wish you had time for?

I'm looking for good writing in the books I read these days, and if the first page or pages don't grab my interest right off, I move on to the next book. First person narratives are interesting, as are the voices of adolescents or children, or struggling personalities, female or male. 

Books with in depth characterizations, complex individuals, and teasing ideas are just as important or even more important as the plot per se. Of course, an intriguing and unusual plot that leads you on becomes just as important as the characters sometimes. 

Have you found any books lately that fit the bill for you? 

Here are a few books that kept and are keeping my interest throughout:

Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange by Katie Goh, May 6, 2025; Tin House, NetGalle

The Master Jeweler by Weina Dai Randel

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa, (September 30, 2025; Knopf Canada; NetGalley

The Water Lies (October 2025; NetGalley)

What books are you reading that have you staying up at night? 

Re gardening: the storms and rains have prevented much gardening but the yard looks bright and green though overgrown. I replanted red lilies from the back to the front flowerbeds, but the winds and rain uprooted them, so I'm back to digging and fixing this morning.

How about you? 

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat and Other Reviews

 

Multiple Book Genres

I've been jumping around genres recently, from Japanese literary fiction to thrillers and cozy mysteries, to historical fiction. 

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida, Sept. 2, 2025, Berkley, NetGalley

Genre: magical realism, contemporary Japanese fiction

The doctor and nurse at The Healing Clinic for the Soul lends out Bengal cats for a week, prescribing a cat for those with problems at home that could be fixed with a cat in the house. The stories are clever and cute, and I loved the magical and fantasy aspects of both cats and clinic, and the doctor who does the prescribing. If I did not have allergies, I'd prescribe myself a cat!

 

Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman, July 30, 2024; Ballantine

Genre: thriller, suspense

Two women, Nina and Maria, are caught up in a house that they cannot fathom, it's secret so huge literally and figuratively. Both women are warned not to enter the basement or enter any of its doors, but they don't comply, being too curious and overly adventurous.

Maria's ordeals in the basement and Nina's bewilderment at the house that her dead father bequeathed her, turn out to be a puzzle the women must play and win. The author's plot around this house as the scene for a dangerous game is intriguing and original.

Thrilling and suspenseful, the story is surprising and the ending shocking.

 

Currently reading

The Master Jeweler by Weina Dai Randel, June 24, 2025; Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley

Genre: historical fiction, Shanghai

Description: the epic story of a brilliant young woman’s rise to fame in the perilous world of jewelry in 1920s Shanghai.

Harbin, China, 1925. Fifteen-year-old Anyu Zhang discovers a priceless Fabergé egg in the snow and returns it to the owner, Isaac Mandelburg, a fugitive former master jeweler for Russia’s imperial palace. In gratitude, he leaves her his address in Shanghai and a promise of hospitality, forever altering her fate.

Memes:  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, , and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Sunday Salon: Swallows: A Novel by Natsuo Kirino, and Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

 Two reviews

Swallows by Natsuo Kirino

Genre: Japanese literature, adult fiction, contemporary fiction


Riki comes to Tokyo not knowing anyone and needing to find a job, but the only thing she can find is a job as a surrogate for famous ballet dancer Motoi and his wife, Yuko, who cannot have children. Riki provides the egg, and she is artificially inseminated with Motoi's sperm. The dancer and his wife agree to take care of all Riki's surrogacy expenses and to raise the child as their own.

However, when Riki discovers she is carrying twins who may not have been fathered by Motoi but possibly by one of two other men with whom she had brief affairs just before insemination, things become complicated for all concerned. And especially for Riki whose maternal instincts kick in later in her pregnance, leading her to maybe consider the idea of raising the twins by herself.

The complications of surrogacy is explored in this novel, not only the physical demands and procedures, but the emotions of the people involved. Changes of mind by all three, from one state to another, make this novel a study in personalities and characters in a difficult situation. I read on, mesmerized by the story and the final resolution. It was not a disappointment.

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

Genre: thriller, mystery set in Bora Bora

Erin and Mark on their honeymoon and sailing in Bora, Bora, find a heavy, bulky bag floating in the water far away from land. They decide to turn it in to their hotel front desk, but Erin, ever the curious one, tears open the bag and makes an irresistable find. They try to keep the bag for themselves, but Erin digs into the background of the possible owners by powering up a cell phone left in the bag and talking to someone on the other end.

Scuba diving in the same area, they had also found the sunken wreckage of a small plane, with people inside.

This starts a cat and mouse game, with Erin digging herself deeper into the mystery and getting both herself and Mark in danger from the unknown persons connected to plane and the bag. They both decide to keep the information to themselves and return home to England with the bag's contents.

Needless to say, danger follows them, and the reader is left with a plot twist that is as mind boggling as it is unexpected. Excellent thriller.

 

Authors coming to our local library

June 17, 2025; William Morrow, NetGalley

Laura Lippman, mystery author visits our main library for her talk on June 26 featuring her books and most recent mystery novel.

Description: Muriel Blossom, a former PI and a middle-aged widow, takes a vacation on a Parisian river cruise, and finds a deadly international mystery only she can solve.

 

May 20, 2025; Sourcebooks, NetGalley

Kristina McMorris will discuss her historical fiction novels on July 22 at the library

Description: Portland, 1888. In the notorious Shanghai Tunnels in underground Portland, a drugged woman finds herself "shanghaied" and being shipped off as forced labor. She serves as a maid for the family of a dubious mayor and becomes entwined in a goldminers' massacre. Being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era of anti-Chinese sentiment, Celia must find a way to escape a place of unearthed secrets more dangerous than the dark recesses of Chinatown.  

In my mailbox

Thanks to Soho Press for a hard copy of the new mystery by Zoe B. Wallbrook, History Lessons, publication July 1, 2025.

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop

Book Reviews: Sunday Salon

 

The House Guest by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Feb. 3, 2023; Forge Books

Genre: thriller

My thoughts: The plot was clever and the characters unusual.  I was however disappointed in the personality of deceived wife, Alyssa, separated from unfaithful husband Bill. Alyssa feels Bill is playing tricks on her from afar, testing and harassing her from wherever he is hiding out.

Her new house guest, Bree, is a strange one, and I was suspicious of her from the beginning, especially as she seems to be planning with her friend Dez, to maybe trick Alyssa in her home. Alyssa seems so clueless at times, unaware, and often too dense to take in her situation and dealing with the cops and Bree and Dez

There are plot twists that show the reader may not be always correct in making assumptions right off the bat. Yet Alyssa is naive enough that you have to root for her as the novel goes on.

Audiobook 

Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman,  published January 7, 2020, Ballantine Books 

Genre: psychological thriller

Setting: Britain 

I reviewed this book on another blog five years ago and gave it a solid five stars. Now on listening to the audiobook, I'm just as impressed as I was when I first read the book.

Mr. Nobody is suffering from fugue, retrograde amnesia due to psychological trauma, which means he does not remember anything from his life before he found himself wandering on a beach in the north of England. Neuropsychiatrist, Emma Lewis, is called in to the hospital to diagnose and treat the patient, which becomes one of the most challenging cases in her career.

Mr. Nobody seems to know Emma, however, and maybe even her secrets from her past. Mr. Nobody may be a military man who has lost his memory. Nobody knows for sure. I don't recall the ending of the novel and am enjoying the audio and anticipating a dramatic ending.

Finished reading

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer; Sept. 9, 2025; Minotaur Books, NetGalley

This novel is about the disappearance of a famous Icelandic crime writer, Elin S. Jonsdottir, whose sudden absence is investigated by a young detective, Helgi.  

The story is reminiscent of Agatha Christie's famous disappearance and reappearance, but the fictitious story of Elin is quite different. Elin's private life and the people involved in her life are key to the mystery, and the result of Helgi's search then becomes plausible. 

Helgi's own private romantic life is a side story added to the main plot. It makes the detective more human, and contributes to the novel's interest. 

This mystery is a traditional mystery and not noir, as so many Nordic mysteries are, but it was an enjoyable read, nevertheless.

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa, (September 30, 2025; Knopf Canada; NetGalley

Genre: adult fiction, Canadian fiction, Laotian 

I enjoyed the realistic portrayal of a nail salon owner, Ning, how she deals with her staff and clients, and how she achieves the smooth running of her shop. Nings's observances of people and situations puts her on top of all possible scenarios that might crop up, and rewards the reader with astute and discerning commentary in this first person narration.

Ning is acutely aware of the biases and the stereotypes that the public makes of her occupation, even by her very own clients. This character driven novel is informative, giving us an inside look into a workplace and the staff and customers and their interactions or noninteractions as the case may be.

A highly recommended and unusual book.

About the author: Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four poetry books, and the award winning short story collection HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE. She was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and resides in Toronto.

What are you reading these days? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves